Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh received one lakh Covid-19 rapid test kits ordered from South Korea via a chartered flight amid nation-wide lockdown on Friday.
The kits, manufactured by SD Biosensor of South Korea, were presented to Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy at a high-level review meeting at his camp office. Reddy launched these test kits and examined its performance. Medical officials said, with newly acquired test kits the coronavirus test can be done within 10 minutes.
As per CM orders, these test kits will be used for community testing and will be transported across all districts in the next four to five days. “We ordered 10 lakh kits, out of which we have received one lakh and remaining will be imported soon,” said the Special Chief Secretary for Health, Jawahar Reddy. "With the arrival of one lakh RTKs, the government now seeks to ramp up testing of Corona cases to 17,000 per day by next week," he added.
The Medical and Health Department is also going in for pooled sample testing, wherein one sample could determine the condition of five people. "The ICMR has suggested this method where 100 tests will give the result of 500 people. We are initially doing the pooled sample testing in Vijayawada city," Reddy said.
As part of community surveillance measures, (blood) sample collection, tracking and results would all be monitored online through a new MIS module. In the door-to-door 'Syndromic Survey' conducted by Asha workers and ANMs recently, over 32,000 people were found to
have symptoms for Covid-19.
Till Friday, 572 cases have been recorded in Andhra Pradesh, majority of patients had attended the religious congregation held in the national capital earlier in March.
(With PTI Inputs)
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